The current crop of Republicans is notoriously callous, and Michele Bachmann is no exception. Here’s what she said about Hurricane Irene and other natural disasters:

“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people, because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet, and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”

Luckily for Obama, Jon Huntsman is way too sane to snag the Republican Presidential nomination. For instance, on Sunday’s THIS WEEK with ABC’s Jack Tapper, Huntsman deplores the Republican Party’s anti-science drift:

HUNTSMAN: I think there’s a serious problem. The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party – the anti-science party, we have a huge problem. We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012. When we take a position that isn’t willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Science – Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man’s contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science, and, therefore, in a losing position.

Huntsman is certainly right about this disturbing trend. And that leads me to my latest limerick:

Hunting For Pro-Science Republicans
By Madeleine Begun Kane

The scientists can’t be believed,
And scholars sure leave them aggrieved.
Don’t trust any source—
That’s the GOP course:
Calling facts they don’t like ill-conceived.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has sure had a busy few days. Not only has he thrown himself into the Republican presidential contest, but he’s threatened Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke with violence and accused him of treason. And let’s not forget this beaut: Perry implied that President Obama isn’t “in love” with America. That’s pretty nervy, coming from a fellow who’s touted Texas secession.

Limerick Ode To Rick Perry
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Dear Perry, to threaten the Fed
With vi’lence ain’t good for your cred.
And throwing around
The word treason ain’t sound
For secession proponents. ‘Nuff said.

America’s large budget deficit is, after all, primarily the result of the economic slump that followed the 2008 financial crisis. And S.& P., along with its sister rating agencies, played a major role in causing that crisis, by giving AAA ratings to mortgage-backed assets that have since turned into toxic waste.

Nor did the bad judgment stop there. Notoriously, S.& P. gave Lehman Brothers, whose collapse triggered a global panic, an A rating right up to the month of its demise. And how did the rating agency react after this A-rated firm went bankrupt? By issuing a report denying that it had done anything wrong.